The original fourteenth amendment was passed in 1868. It provided the right to equal protection under the law. However, women were left out from the amendment. When describing how many representatives a state would receive in Congress, it said only the number of male citizens would decide the total. Just two years prior, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony had established the American Equal Rights Association that fought for universal suffrage for white and black women as well as black men. Stanton and Anthony also formed a weekly newspaper, The Revolution, that reported suffrage among other worthy causes. In Ibsen's Dollhouse, the Norwegian women didn't specifically fight for suffrage, however, these women did acknowledge their dependence on the men in their lives. Mrs. Linde said in Act I, "When he died, it all fell apart, and nothing was left" (Ibsen 51). After her husband died, she didn't have anything to support herself with because she was so dependent on him.
An edition of Stanton and Anthony's weekly newspaper, The Revolution. Click on the photo above to learn more about their newspaper!
Home | The Fourteenth Amendment | The Civil War | World War II | The Equal Pay Act | Current Status of Women
http://www.ywca.org/site/pp.asp?c=djISI6PIKpG&b=295706